08 November 2010

Trip to Indonesia, Part 3: Arrival in Jakarta

After a pleasant airline-funded breakfast at my airline-funded hotel in Singapore, I found out that the ash had cleared away from Jakarta, making it safe to fly again. I called Singapore Airlines, and within a few hours, I was on a short flight to Jakarta.

The area around my hotel

Stepping off the plane, the contrast between Singapore and Jakarta is immediately apparent. Singapore is the model of control, organization, and efficiency. The lines in the airport are well organized in Singapore, while in Jakarta, it is kind of a free-for-all. This seems to apply to almost every aspect of the two cities.

More of the city from my hotel window

From the airport, our client arranged a taxi for me to get to my hotel. The taxi ride took about an hour and a half, and amazingly cost just about $20. Travelling on the road in Jakarta is slightly terrifying. Besides the highways, every road seems to be one and a half lanes wide, and the streets are a mixture of cars, three-wheeled taxis, motorcycles, and pedestrians, all just barely managing not to run into each other. Most buildings are built immediately up against the street, and since there are no sidewalks, pedestrians are forced to walk on the road, fighting with vehicles for their share.

Gardens on the hotel property.

My hotel is nice, although it is hard to compare with the hotel in Singapore. My room has a kitchen, a small living room with a couch and flat-screen TV, and a comfortable bed, so it has everything I need to be comfortable. On the hotel property is a pool with swim-up bar, and the hotel features three restaurants and a convenience shop.

2 comments:

Found your link on Facebook...had given up checking for updates. Good to hear about your trip...your grandmother called me after you'd talked to her about Singapore. After checking it was Shanghai (not Singapore) that we visited in 2007. Great photos...hope you have some fun and not all work while you are there.